Facebook is losing its grip on teens as visual social networks gain popularity

There are some fissures beginning to show in Facebook's remarkably strong hold on nearly every demographic.

Teens, for instance, still use Facebook a great deal, but they no longer see it as the most prestigious or important social network: The rise in teens listing Instagram as their "most important" social network, and the decline of Facebook in this category, has been one of the most pronounced demographic trends in social media.

In late 2012, 42% of teens listed Facebook as the "most important," according to Piper Jaffray. By early 2015 only 14% did so. That's a 28-point drop.

In a recent report from BI Intelligence, we unpack data from over a dozen sources to understand how social media demographics and preferences are still shifting.

Here are a few of the key takeaways from the BI Intelligence report:

Pinterest has tremendous reach among women. Among US female internet users, 42% reported being on Pinterest in Pew's late-2014 survey, compared to only 13% of men.

Instagram has become the most important and most-used social network for US teens. 32% of US teenagers cited it as their most important social network in Piper Jaffray's twice-annual teen survey, compared to only 14% saying that of Facebook.

Snapchat, Vine, and Tumblr had by far the most youthful user bases of the social networks we looked at. 45% of Snapchat's adult users are between 18 and 24, followed by Vine (28%) and Tumblr (28%), according to comScore.

LinkedIn enjoys high adoption among highly educated and high-income users. LinkedIn is used by 44% of Americans with income of $75,000 or more, according to Pew.

Messaging apps also have become more broadly popular, but still skew young: 7% of all people in the US aged 12 and older use WhatsApp, according to the Edison Research and Triton Digital survey.

The aging of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Pinterest is more apparent than ever. That's especially true of Facebook: Less than two-fifths of Facebook's adult user base in the US is aged 18 to 34, according to comScore.

In full, the report:

Looks at overall social networking adoption in the US and globally

Assesses the most important demographic skews at the top social networks, including Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Tumblr

Examines the rise of image-sharing social networks like Instagram and Snapchat

Compares how demographics have changed over time as older social networks have matured

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BI Intelligence

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